July 9, 2008 -- How about this for the next installment of the Indy franchise: "Indiana Jones and the Dodgy Antiques Dealer"?

Less than three months after the Quai Branly Museum in Paris discovered that a crystalskull once proclaimed as a mystical Aztec masterpiece was a fake, it is now the turn of the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution to find they were victims of skull-duggery.

Scientists from those two prestigious institutions on Wednesday said their crystal skulls were cut, honed and polished by tools of the industrial age, not by Mesoamerican craftsmen of yore.

"The skulls under consideration are not pre-Columbian. They must surely be regarded as of relatively modern manufacture," they say.

"Each skull was probably worked not more than a decade before it was first offered for sale."
The skulls became star exhibits in all three museums long before the Indiana Jones movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," hit the movie screens this year.

The superstitious deemed them part of a collection of 12 skulls, endowed with healing or mystical powers, that dated back to the ancient culture of Central America.

Reuniting all 12 skulls, together with a putative 13th, would conjure up a massive power that would prevent the Earth from tipping over on December 21 2012, the "doomsday" in the Mayan calendar, according to one fable.

Legend-lovers had a bad day on April 18 when the Quai Branly said it had found grooves and perforations in its 11-centimeter (4.4-inch) -high quartz skull revealing the use of "jewelery burrs and other modern tools."

Doubts had also surfaced about the skulls in London and Washington, with art experts noting they were unusually large and with teeth markings that were exceptionally linear.

Seeking the verdict of science, researchers from those two museums examined the skulls with electron microscopes, looking at tiny scratches and marks left by the carving implements.

These were then compared with the surfaces of a crystal goblet, rock crystal beads and dozens of greenstone jewels known to be of genuine Aztec or Mixtec origin.

The study appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science, published by the Elsevier group.

The skull in the British Museum, purchased in 1897, is made of transparent rock crystal and is 15 centimeters (six inches) high. The Smithsonian skull, acquired by the museum in 1992, is of white quartz and measures 25.5 cms (10 inches) in height.

The investigators found that rotary wheels gave the British skull its sharp definition, a drill had dug out the nostrils and eyes, and diamond or corondum had been applied with iron or steel tools to smooth its upper surfaces.

As for the U.S. skull, "faint traces" of tool marks remain, but these too are consistent with rotary wheels or grinding pads, the authors say.

No evidence has ever been found that rotary wheels were used to cut stones in Central America before the arrival of Europeans.

The investigators also found a black-and-red deposit in a tiny cavity of the Smithsonian skull. X-ray diffraction showed it to be silicon carbide -- a tough compound that only exists naturally in meteorites but is widespread in modern industrial abrasives.

I don't know any specific names so forgive me for the title being very generally stated.

Very recently I saw two documentaries in which sincere open minded scientists analyzed techniques which must have been used to shape several granite blocks on display in front of the Giza pyramids.

These stones, as old as the pyramids themselves are so perfectly and smoothly shaped and in a way which today is only possible to achieve using modern industrial tools that the only possible conclusion could be that the ancients must have had possession of very modern tools in there time, at least matching the technological standards of today.

Also several blocks can be found on the Giza plateau that show undoubtedly marks of saw blades.

The assumption is that these are wrong cuts but it shows off the highly advanced technical tools these people must have used to 'cause' this.

What I am trying to say in relation to the crystal skulls is that proof of modern machining will not definitely exclude the possibility that they were sculptured in ancient times.

I haven't done any further investigation into them so I have no idea from which time they were claimed to originate from, but hypothetically, if these skulls where made many thousands of years ago and kept in secret storage, then the discovery of modern tooling could make sense since there obviously was a time in B.C. history where people had modern machinery to their disposal.

One of the documentaries I am referring to:

http://www.youtube.com/user/UFOTVstudios#p/u/17/qaHONFBXV-0

Regards, Dieter, The Netherlands.

It seems to me that there may be some crystal skulls that have been recently made and are fraudulently used. Although there are skulls that have been found in places that no one from this time period could have been or placed them. They were buried under ruins or found in caves no one has ever entered before. Why would someone go through all the trouble to find some Archealogical site that has never been located before and hide a skull so that some day hoping someone may come and find it? I would think if someone was trying to sell you one on the street I would be very suspicious of it but if some Archealogist located it in a place no one has ever entered before I would think it is the real McCoy. So how were these skulls made or formed so perfectly wihtout modern tools?

Also how would ancient societies be able to build monuments and structures that are so heavy that machinery and equipment today cannot even move them? How can early primitive man make stone walls that fit so tightly together not even a piece of paper can fit in any cracks? They had some kind of ancient building knowledge that has been lost over time and we are unable to reproduce it or ancient beings that were not from this world taught them the ways to do this and had the same technology to make the skulls. That is why some of these skulls were used in ancient times in special ceremonies and held a very high importance to their world. Almost like an ancient computer or communications device. Crystals hold a special power even in today's technology. The same as their monuments, buildings and structures and how important these were to them as well.

You build a grass or mud hut and it does not take much effort and you can live in it and restore it at any time. It is temporary but shelter from the outside. No effort to fix or rebuild and can keep a family safe. You can cook in it and sleep. Why use up so much energy and wasteful time to commit your people to build something that can take many years to do what? What are the pyramids used for? To me it is not something that is important in my life and has no miraculous effects to make my life better. It does not feed me, it does not cloth me, it does not keep me safe and sheltered. So why commit yourself and millions of people to build it over 25 years or more of constant building, shaping masonry, honing and chiseling to make every stone perfect to fit in place. Not to mention moving them that weigh tons for miles for what?

How many people died making it? How many people had to be taken care of fed looked after and taught the ways of construction. What was all this for? This was happening every where around the world in different continents at the same time. Why? People did not travel back then like today in planes and cars and trains and ships that only took hours or days to get to. How could they spread the message to each other? How did they know complicated mathematical equations and geometry? How did they learn techniques that most people today have a hard time grasping? Let's face it there is a higher supreme species that has a much higher IQ level than any human being ever existed. They know who we are, they know how we live and they have been visiting us for centuries. We are actually cultivated by them made in their image to produce and work. We are the ancients slaves that were developed to help them at some point when they needed us.

I believe they have left this Earth with their technology but left behind a history of ancient buildings and artifacts that cannot be explianed now. I believe that someday as it has been passed down in some of our cultures that they will return. This is when everything will click when everything that we have questioned will come. All our answers will be given. It will be like a giant light bulb has been just turned on. The only question then is will they be friendly or not. Will we be used again like we were in the past. Will we be manipulated by them or exterminated and start all over? This is the question. It is a race for knowledge and the one who possesses more than the other usually wins. Like the Spaniards that came to Mexico, or the Europeans who came to the Americas or the British who went to Africa. Who were the winners and who were the losers. I think we should all take a step back and hold back a big breath before we start sending satelites into space to explore new worlds and attempt to locate other species. We may be in for some trouble when they come to see us in their giant spaceships and annihilate every living thing and take over from some ancient space disease they brought with them or some kind of technology that we cannot fight against. I think we need to listen to scientists like Stephen Hawkins. So maybe these crystal skulls are a key that we should not use. Maybe the real ones were kept hidden and away from people for a reason? Maybe we are playing with these things like other artifacts that we should just leave alone. Like Indiana Jones who in the first movie had the Ark of the Covenant placed in a giant warehouse among other artifacts that were kept in secret away from prying eyes lest it open a large can of worms we cannot deal with. Just my opinion though.